BODDINGTON and BODINGTON names - Origins
The word 'Boddington' is made up of three parts Bodd, ing and ton. The literal meaning would be that Bodd is probably a relatively modern spelling of an old name such as Bôta (see below), ing means 'belonging to', ton meaning village, community or town.
I have received many notes and a great deal of information from Mike Boddington who has undertaken much valuable research into the family. One piece of information relates to the origins of the name. Mike writes …
The Boddington [villages] (Upper and Lower) on the borders of Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire and Warwickshire (all strong Boddington counties) were recorded as Botendon in the Domesday Book (1086)
, which is generally translated as being the hill or down where Bôta's people lived. Boddington Manor in Gloucestershire was Botingtune in 1086, which was the farmstead or town of a man called Bôta. Not the same Bôta, I imagine. Bodenham in Wiltshire is recorded in the Rolls of 1249 as Boteham, which is also associated with the personal name Bôta. So I guess that there were a few of them about.
Helen Bodington (yes, with one 'd'; see one D Bodingtons) discovered that …In a list of the rectors of the church in Upper Boddington [Northamptonshire] in England, Adam Bot-in-Don is recorded as a rector in the 13th century. There is further information about him posted there also.
I have also found a reference that includes one and two D Bods and, most interestingly, the use of the name Boddenton which, in a later generation, became Boddington. These are from the registers of Charlecote, Warwickshire, and may be viewed in Miscellanea Genealogica Et Heraldica which can be viewed on Google; search the book for Boddenton and look at the bottom of page 203 and then 204.Richard Joscelyne made a most interesting discovery (12/2007) …
Please refer to Keats Rohan Domesday Descendants, page 342. Maurice de Botinden's son Joce(lin)us probably had a son Ralph Fitz Jocelin who married Beatrice de Boseville from the neighbouring village of Aston le Walls in about 1200. From their marriage stems an unbroken line of Jocelins in Essex.
… so perhaps the Boddingtons and the Jocelins are actually the same family but with different names! Perhaps Maurice de Botinden was a close relative of the Adam Bot-in-Don noted above.Further research by Richard extends his thesis (01/2008) …
I have now found another document which relates the two families. The Warwickshire Record Office has a charter of Clement de Botindon undated, but in my view probably of about 1230, of which Sir John Jocelin (the son of Ralph and Beatrice) and William son of Joce are witnesses. William son of Joce must have been a very old man at that time as he also appears in Pipe Rolls of Henry II of the 1180s. He could have been John Jocelin's uncle. There are other theories about the origin of the Jocelin name.
… and further (01/2008) …There are references to the Bodinton/Botindon family in Keats Rohan, in case you may want to look them up. The whole passage reads:
de Botindon, Mauricius. named from Boddington in Northamptonshire in the fee of the earl of Chester; ancester of a Maurice Botindon of 1242, he was possibly the father of Joceus de Botindon who lived in the time of Henry II and Richard II who was twice married, to Cecilia and then to Gunnilda, and was father of William by his first wife. See Farrer, Honours and Knights Fees, 3 vols Manchester 1923-25 and Franklin, Cartulary of Daventry Priory (1988) no. 434.
There is a further reference in Keats Rohan (which at the moment I can't find - there is no index) to the family of Robert de Botindon's wife. My further research shows that Robert was the father of Clement to whose charter of about 1230, Sir John Jocelin was a witness, together with William fitz Joce, by that time surely a very old man. Robert and William I suppose to have been brothers.
Robert Boddington wrote and added …I have a reference squirreled away somewhere that puts the earliest use of the name back to the 1000s, about 150 or 200 years earlier than the first use described in articles about the name. From my recollection, a William Botendon (or some such), a man of arms, mentioned in a cartulary of Abingdon Abbey.
There are also places named Bodenham and Bodenham Moor in Herefordshire and there is a reference to Master Adam de Botindon in Gloucestershire. Bôta comes from the gothic word for profit; boot or bot meaning compensation as in payment for services given. No doubt the word booty comes from the same origin.There are modern variations on the name. Boddington, Bodington (see below), Buddington and Budington are surely spelling variations of the same name. Baddington, Badington, Beddington, Bedington, Biddington and Bidington may also be part of the collection. None is likely to be the proper spelling because they have all evolved over the years from origins that may not be the same for them all, but which we cannot know for sure. We can never be clear as to what is proper and what is not. They are all proper, just different!
Bodington family
I have been sent a huge collection of research following the one D Bodingtons of north east Warwickshire and, later, living in Rhode Island, USA. I have transcribed this into a digital tree and it is now available as a sub set of this web site. List One D Bodingtons.A most interesting aspect is that they originate from the same area as my own family of two D Boddingtons; in the same villages. The probability is that we are all related but that one family is a mis-spelling of the original name. I hope that research will eventually show us which was which!
